Though they have been called voyeuristic and exploitative, the nudes photographed by Helmut Newton (b.1920) are also widely admired. Rather than seeming conscious of the viewer, his subjects typically appear as though observed by chance. The subtly varied moods of Newton's eroticism find a place both in international commercial art and in private portrait studies, making him one of the most sought-after contemporary photographers. This film highlights Newton's meticulous and deceptively understated approach as he completes a series of very different commissions. Preferring to work alone, and using natural lighting wherever possible, Newton achieves the effects of candid intimacy that have become his hallmark and that are compared here by Karl Lagerfeld to the drawings of Henri Matisse. Newton's method is lyrically evoked by this film, which presents him as the natural successor to the great 'painters of women' of the past.